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Thursday, September 22, 2016

Painted blocks and my newly decorated mantel

I love fall, and it is finally not so hot in NY. Still in the 80's some days but not humid anymore and nights are cool enough to sleep now. But it's late September and should be cooler. My daughter loves fall even more than I do apparently and she has gotten me into the mood to decorate......so here's my first of many fall posts.

Materials:

2 rectangular blocks (i used my carving blocks and after the season i plan on carving them into birds)

Acrylic Paints in brown, off white, orange and gray

Pencil

Liner brush and medium brush

Step 1: gather supplies and get sidetracked right off the bat by the cat playing on your table.

Step 2: paint the edges of the blocks a dark brown.

Step 3: paint over the whole block in a parchment or off white. Mine wasn't dry yet so the brown smeared into the white. If yours dried quickly you can wipe the white off here and there with a baby wipe.

Step 4: draw the words you choose on each block in pencil.

I almost wrote "give thanks" but decided on "pumpkin spice" instead. Something even more random would be fun too..."candy corn" or "crunchy leaves" or "cider and donuts"or "caramel latte".... Whatever makes you think of fall....

Step 5: paint over the words in gray with your liner brush.

Step 6: draw lines for a border with your pencil, and add orange dots or squiggles as accents.

8 comments:

Totally adorable! We were just discussing season/holiday decorating yesterday. Sofie is adding a weaving loom in October to our already tight studio space. . . and then we realized, wait, what about the Xmas tree? Where will that go? We figured it out, I think, but decided all other decorations must be less invasive and easily movable. lol

And you know, l think I have a few of those basswood blocks tucked away somewhere here. . . :)

My goodness, you make it seem so easy and the simplicity of the blocks makes it even more beautiful ... but if I tried to paint letters in cursive, I guarantee, it wouldn't look that nice. Fun project, though. I may just give it a try :)

I love your enchanting autumn decoration and the photos about the "how to" very much. The fresh green pumpkin and the wooden blocks with your wonderful hand lettering spread such a lovely and heartwarming atmosphere.